Distance-Education Providers Promote Summertime Discounts

In the increasingly competitive world of distance education, some institutions have turned to discounts and promotions to attract students -- especially in the summer, when potential students may be thinking more about beaches than books.

The University of Phoenix's World Wide Web site touts a "summer promotion" that lets you "Save up to $250!!" if you apply to the University of Phoenix Online before June 29. The for-profit institution will waive $133 in fees and even buy the books for the first course.

At Onlinelearning.net's site, a pop-up window shows a picture of a man lounging in a beach chair, with a sound clip of ocean waves playing in the background. The tagline: "Things to do this summer? Take a vacation, spend time with family, go to the beach, relax, get a tan ... go to class??? Get out of the classroom and attend class ONLINE. Enroll in a summer online course by June 24 and SAVE $25!"

"Online courses are not very mainstream yet, and we're trying to get attention," says Cathy Beaumont, the company's director of marketing. "And you have to keep in mind that our online courses are competing with a much broader audience, geographically speaking," than traditional courses do.

But could such discounts cheapen the notion of distance education?

Lucie Lapovsky, president of Mercy College, in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., and a close observer of tuition-discounting by traditional colleges, says it could. "Sometimes in higher education, if you discount it, people wonder about the value of it," she says. "Tiffany's never runs a sale."

"That's the tough part about my business," says Ms. Beaumont. "Typically, you don't think of selling courses. We're respectful that this is an academic, high-quality higher-education product."

Onlinelearning.net modeled its promotion after those of business seminars and other professional-training programs, she says. "I'm not going to do the whole sweepstakes package and giving away a car -- stuff that can border on tacky."

Brian Mueller, chief operating officer of the University of Phoenix Online, says it started the summer promotion several years ago, because there were fewer students at that season. "There is that pattern in higher education that still exists for people, which is that the spring- and fall-semester time periods are typical for starting back to school," he says. "This helps us even out the enrollment flow throughout the year, rather than have to deal with huge numbers of students in two time periods."

Students in Phoenix's courses tend to be business-minded, and they understand the idea behind the promotion, he adds. "When you explain that it's being done for the benefit of proper preparation and customer care, they can identify with that right away."

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